Wall Street Journal / New America
Shane Harris is a senior writer covering national security for the Wall Street Journal and a fellow with the International Security Program at New America. A former senior intelligence and national security correspondent for The Daily Beast, he is the author of The Watchers: The Rise of America's Surveillance State and @War: The Rise of the Internet Military Complex.
Russian spies indicted in Yahoo hack For the first time, the US Justice Department is charging Russian officials with cybercrimes . Two agents of the FSB — which succeeded the KGB — are among four foreigners accused of hacking Yahoo in 2014, stealing 500 million user accounts. Shane Harris, senior national security correspondent for the Wall Street Journal , says the charges send a message to Russia that we know what it's doing.
Can America's top law enforcement officer investigate himself? Attorney General Jeff Sessions is accused of "misleading" fellow Senators during his confirmation hearing — and possibly lying in response to written questions. It's all about whether he met with Russia's ambassador as a surrogate for candidate Donald Trump and an advisor to his presidential campaign. Democrats and even some Republicans want him to recuse himself from overseeing an FBI investigation -- if one is going on. Others want him to resign. Note: After our discussion aired, Sessions issued a statement on recusal .
National intel chiefs testify on Capitol Hill At today's Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Russian hacking of last year's US election. Republican John McCain said, "none of us believe" it changed the outcome. But National Intelligence Director James Clapper testified that it wasn't for lack of trying. Shane Harris covers national security for the Wall Street Journal .
Trump and the complexities of the cyber era US intelligence chiefs told a Senate committee today Russia was more aggressive than ever in hacking to influence last year's US election. Donald Trump's denial of that claim has created a crisis of credibility, and agency leaders said today they want to be as public as possible. But Senators agreed that too much openness would threaten the lives of agents and waste the billions invested in worldwide cyber-spying. Is Trump onto something American spies don't know, or is he concerned that reports of Russian influence will de-legitimize his election?
Trump’s latest appointees: Sessions, Pompeo and Flynn President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination for Attorney General is Jeff Sessions, an immigration hard-liner and opponent of legal marijuana. Trump has selected Mike Pompeo as CIA chief. Pompeo was one of the lead Benghazi investigators in the House. Trump also selected Michael Flynn as national security advisor. Flynn has advised Trump on foreign policy throughout the campaign and believes the U.S. is at war with Islam.
The Wikileaks’ campaign to bring down Clinton Julian Assange of Wikileaks has been holed up in the Ecuador’s London embassy since 2012—to avoid extradition for sex-crime charges in Sweden. Wikileaks was dumping a trove of internal documents from Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign until Assange’s internet access was cut off on Saturday night. It’s been restored, and the document dump continues. Photo: Julian Assange (Espin Moe).
Could hackers disrupt election day? Donald Trump has repeatedly complained that the upcoming presidential election will be “rigged.” Saying that may or may not be an effective way to sway voters to vote for him. But there are security analysts who believe that it wouldn’t be too hard to hack not the political system, but the vote itself . Specifically, modern electronic voting machines.
FBI Director Calls Clinton 'Extremely Careless,' Recommends No Charges FBI Director James Comey announced Tuesday the results of an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of private email servers while she was Secretary of State. The FBI is not recommending any charges be brought against her, but Comey said Clinton did email classified information, leaving it vulnerable to foreign hackers, contrary to what she’s claimed. What other points did Comey criticize or contradict Clinton on?
It's Detention and Interrogation All Over Again The US has been killing Islamic State fighters with airstrikes and drones, but now 300 Special Forces are on the ground in Iraq. They're conducting so-called "targeted raids," and taking prisoners. But they're not the only ones. Today, Kurdish Peshmerga reportedly captured a US citizen, Mohammed Jamal Amin from Virginia — who is said to have entered Syria from Turkey and then made his way to Iraq — complicating the issue of what to do with ISIS detainees. Questions about "enhanced interrogation" and Guantánamo Bay are already being raised in the presidential campaign.
Obama to Meet with Victims' Families in San Bernardino During his final press conference of the year today, President Obama talked about the challenges in rooting out would-be terrorists on social media. It’s a topic on people’s minds as news continues to unfold about the attackers in this month’s mass shooting in San Bernardino, including their Facebook communications. Now the president is off for a vacation in Hawaii, but first he’s scheduled to stop in San Bernardino to meet with the shooting victims’ families.
Congressional Report Blasts Bergdahl Prisoner Swap Republicans in Congress today released a report that's revived a dispute with the Obama Administration. Last year, five prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay were traded for Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who was held for five years by an affiliate of the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan. The report says the Pentagon violated the law, as we hear from reporter Shane Harris of the Daily Beast .
Making Sense of Intel Dispute on Russia Jet Suspicions US intelligence suggests the Russian plane that crashed last week above the Sinai Peninsula may have been brought down by an explosive device. After meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi today, British Prime Minister David Cameron cited the intelligence reports as the reason he cancelled British flights originating from the Egyptian resort town Sharm-el-Sheikh. Russian and Egyptian authorities have criticized that intelligence. Shane Harris is senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast .
More Russian Air Strikes in Syria Confound Washington Today Russian war planes carried out a second day of air strikes in Syria. Although Moscow claims to be targeting ISIS, the strikes have hit other rebel groups fighting against the Syrian government – including some backed by the US. Shane Harris, national security correspondent for the Daily Beast , has been speaking with US officials about the air strikes.
Unreliable Isis Intel Fifty intelligence analysts say their reports on ISIS and Al Qaeda are being watered down by senior officials. According to an exclusive story in the Daily Beast , the analysts complain that higher-ups are deleting assessments they consider too pessimistic, or pushing them back down the chain of command. They charge that the administration wants the intelligence to fit their political narrative: that the U.S. is making progress against ISIS. And now the Pentagon’s inspector general is investigating.
Political Theater and NSA's Data Collection Program President Obama isn't the only one warning that, if a key provision of the Patriot Act is allowed to expire, Americans will be in danger. Republican Senator John McCain called the program “as critical as it's ever been.” But fellow Republican Rand Paul , who's now getting the credit — and the blame — for the fact that Section 215 of the Patriot Act has been allowed to expire, says the real issue is the intrusion of big government on individual Americans. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell also comes from Kentucky, and he's endorsed Rand Paul's presidential campaign while opposing his reforms to the NSA program. Now he's come around to allowing a vote on the compromise USA Freedom Act , already passed by the house, saying it strikes a critical balance between privacy and national security.” While all three senators assume that the Patriot Act gives the NSA broad powers it wouldn't have otherwise and that allowing it to expire will make a real difference, others say that's not necessarily so.
Did North Korea Hack Sony Pictures as Payback over a Movie? A sophisticated cyber attack on Sony Pictures has wreaked havoc on the studio in Culver City, California. Five major films were stolen, exorbitant executive salaries were revealed and the computer system was essentially wiped out. Private consultants warned comedy star Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg, director of the new film The Interview to change their bank account passwords... warning "we're not kidding." They warned that North Korea might retaliate for the satirical film about assassinating that country's leader Kim Jung Un. We hear two theories about what happened.
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.
Replacing Obamacare: Now you see it… now you don’t As the Senate deliberates replacing Obmacare, health coverage for millions of people is at stake. There've been no public hearings, and a draft measure won't be made public. Is the House version so unpopular that that Senate is hiding a version that looks much the same?
What is Trump's plan for Middle East peace? On his first foreign tour, President Trump has promised "peace" between Israel and the Palestinians. Are there any details for re-starting talks that have been stalled for the past three years?
Human Rights in the era of Donald Trump President Trump’s UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley, said today the US might pull out of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council. Serious violators of human rights are members of the Council itself–and a US resignation could make things worse. Later on today’s show, now that he’s into his second term, comedian turned US Senator Al Franken is telling jokes again.
